20/06/25

INDONESIA: Indonesia Eyes Tax Reform, Golden Visa Enhancements, and Bali IFC Plans as HNW Focus Sharpens

As published on: hubbis.com, Friday 20 June, 2025.

In a LinkedIn post following his participation in the Hubbis Indonesia Wealth Management Forum 2025 on June 12th, Zac Lucas TEP, Head of Private Client Asia at Spencer West LLP, revealed key insights into the direction of Indonesia’s evolving wealth management landscape.

Lucas noted that there is broad consensus that a wealth or inheritance tax is unlikely to be introduced before the next tax amnesty. However, once the Core Tax system—a comprehensive digital platform designed to link income, payments, and CRS data to taxpayers—is fully implemented, a wealth tax is expected to follow. It is likely to focus on land ownership, which is harder to relocate offshore, reducing the risk of capital flight.

Tax enforcement is also expected to intensify, particularly as Core Tax enables more targeted action. Concerns were raised that CRS data may trigger unnecessary investigations, such as where account balances linked to “protectors” are mistakenly treated as beneficially owned.

Indonesia’s Golden Visa programme was another focus. While offering promise, it was seen as needing refinement—especially in duration and cost—in order to compete more effectively with alternatives like the UAE’s regime.

Separately, Lucas shared that he was invited to private meetings concerning the proposed Indonesia Financial Centre in Bali. Discussions suggested a bold legal and structural vision beyond Dutch civil, Sharia, and Adat legal principles. If formalised, the initiative could reshape the landscape for domestic and international capital deployment in Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities are increasingly aware of the significant offshore wealth held in Singapore and are looking to develop credible, legally certain pathways for repatriation—beyond short-term amnesties. However, this is likely to coincide with tighter scrutiny of preferential regimes, including under the omnibus law reforms.